The Wings of Icarus
by wintersupersoldiers
Summary: [Ender's Game AU, Divergent Elements] Percy Jackson was the youngest Commander in history, climbing up the ranks at an alarming pace due to his brilliance in the battlefield and natural leadership. However, manipulation and greed lies at every corner, waiting to drown him in the darkness.
1. So Darkness I Become

Title: **The Wings of Icarus**  
Summary: [Ender's Game AU, Divergent Elements] Percy Jackson was the youngest Commander in history, climbing up the ranks at an alarming pace due to his brilliance in the battlefield and natural leadership. However, manipulation and greed lies at every corner, waiting to drown him in the darkness.

_Chapter One: So Darkness I Become _

**WHAT WILL BE THEN **

"Don't you see? What you're doing...it's not for the better! You...you and I, we used to be best friends, but now, I don't know you anymore. You've become a selfish monster, a killer! We're supposed to protect the mortals, not murder them!"

"I know what I'm doing. It's what's best for everyone, even if you can't see it now," he tried his best to explain gently, to his friend, his once trusted ally, his right hand.

"You're being brainwashed! Please, you have to see that what you're doing isn't right -"

No, he wasn't the one who was brainwashed. Everyone else was tangled up in a web of lies, but only he knew the truth behind everything, and so it is up to him to save the rest from driving themselves into perdition. He would save them from themselves, from their sins. But for now, he would not allow anyone to stand in his way - friend or not. "You're a traitor."

"What?"

"I said that you are a traitor. I'm the leader, I'm doing what I think is best for everyone, and you're going against me. I trusted you, but now…You're nothing but a traitor...and traitors are to be annihilated."

"You can't execute me! I'm your best friend!"

"I am not friends with traitors." He held his head high and watched the traitor with cold and unforgiving eyes. "Guards! Throw this _traitor_ in the dungeons. Tonight, this conspirator shall be executed in public. I will make an example of the turncoat and show everyone what happens when one dares to go against me."

The guards did as they were told but even as they dragged the conspirator away, said person continued to scream.

"You're a monster, Percy, a monster!"

**WHAT WAS BEFORE **

"He's one of the brightest students I've had in all of my years of teaching," Chiron murmured to his friend. "He's got good aim with a gun and a natural leadership. He's moving up the ranks quickly. The Director is very impressed."

"He'll be the greatest commander in history."

"He's only fourteen, Lupa," Chiron reminded his colleague.

"At this pace, he'll be in Command School in a couple of months, a year at most."

"No Pre-Command, then?"

"No," Lupa mused. "His brilliance would be wasted there."

The two instructors watched the screens that showed them as their most brilliant student dodged a bullet aimed for him – not a real bullet, but one that would make the target feel the agony of an actual bullet – and shot a member of the opposing team on both of their legs.

The enemy fell to the ground, groaning in pain as Percy chuckled darkly and ran past him, heading towards where the flag of his enemy was, gray and shinning in the moonlight.

"He's ruthless…unforgiving." Lupa murmured while her dark eyes were fixed on the screen in fascination, eagerly watching the events unfold before her.

Just as he was about to grab it, the leader of the Athena faction leaped out from behind a battered car and shot Percy on his leg. _"Asshole, that was for shooting my brother." _

Percy glared up at the blonde girl as he got up, yanking the bullet from his leg and punched her jaw. _"Bitch, that's for shooting my cousin." _

"He may be ruthless, but he cares for his loved ones dearly," Chiron said. "…Even if it's just a game."

"This isn't just a game to them, Chiron."

The leader of the Athenians stumbled backwards but quickly regained her composure, raising her gun while wiping away the blood from her mouth with her shoulder, but before she could pull the trigger, Percy's cousin appeared behind her and shot her back while sneering condescendingly. _"Not so fast, Annabeth." _

Percy and his cousin grinned at each other while Percy quickly reached for the gray flag, holding it over his head in victory.

_"We did it, Thalia! We did it!" _

Thalia smirked back at him, high with the triumph, and responded, _"What's new?" _

The two cousins laughed as their Faction symbol appeared on the sky, illuminating the arena: a Trident and a Lightning Bolt crossed like an X, with a Skull on the background - the Big Three, or more commonly known as the Dauntless.

"Perseus by himself is great…dangerous, but the Big Three, together, imagine what they could accomplish." Lupa mused out loud. "They are destined for greater things than Battle or even Command school. Together, they could rule the galaxies, they could bring the universe to its knees and will everyone at their command, and they could –"

"Lupa! You know you can't speak like that, you can't be too ambitious."

"It's not for _my _benefit, it's for _theirs." _

"Don't you mean that it is exclusively for the benefit of Percy and the rest be damned?"

Lupa glared at Chiron in outrage. "Are you implying that –?"

"Please, Lupa, don't play the role of a simpleton. It doesn't suit you. It's no secret that you favor Perseus Jackson above others, you hold him dear to you. You train him privately; you _care _for him more than instructors are allowed to."

Lupa sniffed haughtily. "So what if he's become like a son to me?"

"You –and him – have become too attached. Someday, you won't be there for each other and it will be the greatest pain the both of you will suffer. One day, he won't return from the battlefield, one day –"

"Don't."

"No one can live forever, Lupa," Chiron whispered. "Not even the gods, much less a boy thrown into war far too young."

Lupa turned to stare at her colleague sharply. "Don't pretend that _you _don't favor him either."

"I never denied it, but one day we will be castigated for this."

"Then I shall wait that day with open arms, but until that day comes, I will not stop loving my son."

"Neither will I. Sinners, it's what we are, rule breakers; we broke the one law that we must always follow: don't get emotionally involved."

"Then together we will burn in hell. But until then, let us indulge in the guilt of loving a child as our own, for all of the others that we could not."

Chiron smiled sadly at the woman. "I suppose."

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

"She's glaring."

Percy sighed and rolled his eyes. "When is she not?"

Thalia shrugged while Nico sniggered into his food and Jason laughed beside Percy. Hazel and Bianca looked at each other and silently debated who should be the one to ask. After a few moments, Hazel tore her eyes away from her half-sister and cleared her throat.

"Can anyone explain exactly why she's glaring _this time_…harder than all of the other times, may I add?"

Percy raised an eyebrow and put his glass to his lips, a signal that he wasn't going to answer. It was Nico who did, however. "She's pissed because Percy punched her and Thalia shot her before they snatched the flag right from under her stuck-up nose."

"Let her be pissed; she's a fuckin' sore loser that's what she is."

"So are you, Thalia," Jason pointed out helpfully.

"As are you," Bianca chipped in.

The two Grace siblings shrugged uncaringly.

"She's," Hazel began thoughtfully. "She's going to want to get her vengeance."

"I'll electrocute her." "I'll drown her."

Thalia and Percy grinned at each other like a pair of lunatics, which made the others sitting at their table slowly scoot away from the pair. "We'll drown her in spiders that will electrocute her" they said together.

"I swear to the gods, you two are more brother and sister than me and Thalia," Jason said with a roll of his electric blue eyes and went back to his food.

Nico's dark eyes lingered on the two, focusing more on Percy than Thalia, before he looked away and sighed softly. Hazel and Bianca shot their brother (half-brother, in Hazel's case) an apprehensive glance.

Percy, Jason and Thalia didn't seem to notice, too enthralled in their own food and conversation of cruel plans to use against the Athenian leader.

All the while, a pair of livid, gray eyes glared at the Dauntless Faction irately, her eyes softening when they specially fixated on the green-eyed boy.

Nico looked up and caught her eyes; the two held each other's gazes for a moment before they looked away, but not before the son of Hades gave her a warning: _don't you dare. _

She got the message loud and clear, but that didn't mean that she was going to back off just because an inconsequential little boy told her to. She wasn't an Athenian leader for nothing.

She always has a plan.

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

_Combat in Training Room 13-G_  
_Dauntless vs. Mercury _  
_7 o'clock _

**WHAT WILL BE THEN **

"You've come so far, so powerful," she murmured.

"I owe it all to you, mother, all of it. For it, I am eternally grateful. I serve only you."

"Perseus, my child, so you say, but can you swear to it?"

"I do."

"Would you swear on it by an oath of blood? Do you swear to never betray me, to always be by my side or suffer a fate worse than death?"

"I do, mother. I would deserve a fate worse than death if I were to ever leave you voluntarily. I will burn along with this world if I do, I would deserve it all; the pain and the melancholy."

"Would you burn this world for me, if I asked you to?"

"I would burn this world and many others. I would cross the galaxies for you, I would kill for you."

"Then do it. Kill for me, my child."

"I swear to."

She handed him a slip of paper with a single name written on it. He looked down at it and stared at the name printed neatly in red ink…blood.

"Are you hesitating?"

"No, mother, I…" he held back his gulp. "I was merely startled. I would have thought that she would be useful to you, for she is powerful."

"You're the only one of power that I need. **Kill** her."

"As you wish, mother."

**WHAT WAS BEFORE **

"So we're going to miss dinner for a stupid meeting?" Nico grumbled as he trailed behind his fellow Faction members, the Dauntless (officially, they were the Big Three, but nobody really called them that…because really, saying Big Three Faction all the time was a fucking mouthful and nobody got time for tha') rubbing his blue and purple stomach. "We _just _finished training, dammit."

"In the battlefield, the enemy won't care if you're tired and hungry, _Ni_co." Jason told him, rolling his eyes just like he always did, in this infuriating way of his that made Nico want to pound the blondness and arrogance out of him and dance over his dead corpse. "They're not going to hold themselves back from beating the shit out of you because you're a whiny bitch. Welcome to the real world, motherfucker."

Percy shot Jason a look and placed an arm around Nico's shoulders, "Don't listen to that asshole, Nico, he's just mad because you got him good."

Nico was proud of that; when he and Jason sparred one-on-one, Nico had seen an opening and so he took it, landing a well-aimed punch to the blond's right side of his face, bruising him up real nice.

Percy had beamed at him in pride.

He was becoming skilled; good enough for Percy to rely on him with his back and make him his right hand, good enough to warrant him a place right beside his beloved cousin when said cousin became the leader of the Galactic Empire Armies –because Percy _will _become the Leader; it is only inevitable, everyone knew. The two of them, together, would rule the universe, their names will be known across the galaxies as Leader and Lieutenant of the Olympia blood line, bringing fame and glory to their kin.

Together, they would watch the world burn at their feet.

They would be unstoppable.

Started: 4/4/14  
Completed: 4/8/14

**A/N: The only reason that I got through writing this was because I gathered my writing gear: my Game of Thrones shirt, several Red Bulls and a fucking amazingly epic battle play list. [**Complete soundtrack for this story will be up soon on the website that I am putting together, but for now: _**Courtyard Apocalypse **_- Alexandre Desplat (Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2)**] **


	2. Heart of Courage

**The Wings of Icarus **  
_Chapter Two: Heart of Courage _

Song: _**Freedom Fighters **_-Two Steps From Hell 

Percy grunted as he jumped into the small hole and crawled through the tunnel, the smell of dirt and sweat clinging on to him like a second skin, his riffle in his arms. He pushed both of his arms out, with his riffle in between them and then came his body, relieved to be out of the small space.

Quickly, he put his riffle back in front of him one he had gotten back to his feet and wiped the dirt from his eyes, skimming his surroundings in the dark of the night and walked at a fast pace towards the climbing wall, where the rest of his team was waiting. As he walked closer, he could still barely make them out in the darkness that contrasted with their dark clothing. He smiled at that.

"The coast is clear. I didn't see anyone from Mercury, but I have no doubt that they're close. They're most likely in the trees, since their uniforms are dark green…so they'll want to blend in." He paused thoughtfully. "But Luke is smarter than that and he'll know that that's what we'll think…so probably they're hiding somewhere where it would be less likely to find them."

"What if it's a mental thing?" Jason said. "What if they _want _us to think that they'll be smart enough to hide somewhere where it's less likely and they'll actually hide in the most obvious place?"

Percy looked at his fellow Dauntless thoughtfully. "Alright, that's also a possibility, so we can't be sure."

"We'll have to split up then, won't we?" Bianca asked and Percy nodded. "Yeah, so…how about…" he trailed off, in his mind working at a hundred miles per hour, calculating the probabilities and sorting through plans in his head.

"We'll have to split into two groups. Jason and Hazel, you two go to the north, where it's the most obvious that they'd hide. Thalia and I will go to the west, where it's not as likely. Nico, you trail Jason and Hazel, since you're super stealthy and be sure to keep yourself hidden and only come out if you're needed. Bianca, same for you, but you'll tail me and Thalia."

Everyone else nodded, satisfied with the plan.

"Man, it sucks that our powers are blocked here." Thalia grumbled as she flexed her fingers, missing the feeling of electricity coursing through her body.

Hazel nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it'd be much easier because Nico and Bianca could just call to the shadows and know instantly where anyone from Mercury is."

"I guess that's why they're blocked here," Jason said. "Because it'd be so easy and we wouldn't really have a chance to test out our skills _without _our powers."

"Jason, always the wise man." Percy smirked and Jason shot him a grin.

"Anyway," Percy said and snapped back into his leader persona. "Let's get going. We shouldn't waste time. It'll be dawn soon, in here, and we should hurry and use the darkness to our advantage."

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

"Good thing that we decided to split into groups, or we'd have been ambushed and lost the battle," Nico said as he stretched out while walking alongside his favorite cousin. "Luke's good, though…Dauntless good, almost. He's got the brains and the strength, certainly the bravery. _Why _isn't he in Dauntless?"

"Because he's not one of us," Thalia responded. "He may be good, but he wouldn't survive with us."

"You guys are so arrogant," a high pitched voice said behind them. The six Dauntless kids stopped walking and turned around to face Annabeth, who was flanked by two of her friends who weren't from her Faction.

Percy rose and eyebrow and after giving her an amused glance, his gaze moved on to the girl on her right.

"Hello, Zoë," he said with a small smile.

Zoë nodded at him and returned his smile, "Perseus."

He didn't even flinch or glare when his full name was uttered from her lips as he usually would have done if someone else had said his full first name and everyone else took notice of it, especially Annabeth. Instead, his smile became wider. "Haven't seen you in a long while, Nightshade," he said casually.

"Aw, you missed me that much, huh, Jackson?"

"Yeah, you could say that, Nightshade."

"Well," Piper, Annabeth's other friend, from the Venus Faction, started. "You two seem to be very good friends." She said as she looked in between the two of them, noticing their gazes towards each other and their rather fond smiles. She also noticed how Annabeth had stiffened up next to her, her gray eyes narrowing as she also took notice of the lingering gazes between the Hunter and the Dauntless Leaders towards the one another. Piper felt bad for the blonde girl. She was always so stiff, so focused only on training and books and when around, Percy Jackson. Too bad that her crush was one-sided, it seemed.

_I know how you feel, _Piper thought as she sneaked a glance at Jason before quickly looking away. Jason caught it though but he was used to it; that girl was always staring at him. He couldn't really remember her name nor did he care. She was pretty, sure, but she also had one of those very forgettable faces.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Very good…friends."

Zoë and Percy shared a secretive smile in between them and Piper could almost feel Annabeth shaking beside her. She looked away from the pair and scanned the faces of the other Dauntless members, noting their cool and neutral expressions until she got to the youngest one, Nico, who she was smirking gleefully and cruelly at Annabeth. His dark eyes flickered towards hers for a second and she unconsciously took a step back. Nico raised an eyebrow at her and his smirk widened.

"Well, as I was saying," Annabeth finally seemed to have regained her voice. "You Dauntless think that you're the best of the school, like you're royalty or something, huh? You're not even the best fighters." She snapped with her voice colder than usual. Percy looked back at her and crossed his arms, smiling at her amusedly. "What was that, blonde bitch?" he asked with laughter in his voice. "Sorry, I couldn't hear you over your blatant jealousy."

Annabeth's face paled.

Did he know that…? Her eyes darted away from him and she clenched her fists. There was no way that he knew what she felt for him…and she was going to keep it that way. He must be talking about the rivalry between his Faction and hers. Yeah, that must be it.

"Ugh! You're such an asshole!"

"What, did you expect for him to just stand there while you try to insult us?" Bianca asked Annabeth calmly.

Annabeth's gray eyes focused on the eldest di Angelo. "I don't recall speaking to you."

"Bad memory, then; you said Dauntless and last time I checked," Bianca looked around and spread her arms in an exaggerated manner. "I _am _a Dauntless."

"Children, what are you doing out here? It's nearly lights out!"

"Hello, Chiron," Percy greeted their instructor calmly, as their teacher rolled up to them in his wheelchair and glanced at his watch. "Sorry about that. We were just chatting and didn't notice the time - it's nearly ten o'clock, damn. Time flies by when you're having fun with your friends, huh?"

His fellow Dauntless and the Hunter nodded along with him, while Annabeth crossed her arms and Piper decided to stay silent, dreading to be at the end of the steely gray glare that Annabeth was sure to fire at her for nodding along with _Dauntless, _which would have been hypocritical of the Athenian, since she had the biggest crush on their leader and pretty much agreed with anything he said during their lectures - even providing facts to back up Percy's arguments…which wouldn't be so out of character for Annabeth if she wasn't giving him love struck goo-goo eyes.

No one else was really surprised anymore as they had been when it had first started back when they were seven-eight. It seemed that everyone was well aware of Annabeth's love for Percy and used to her 'covering' it up with weak insults - because really, she wasn't even trying! (Really, she's been known to have the ability to reduce some members of the Mars faction to tears with only a couple of words - but those had been some newbies, so did they count?)

Percy seemed to know this but the knowledge only made it more fun for him, Piper guessed. He seemed to enjoy toying with Annabeth and using her emotions against her, knowing that she would only half-heartedly retaliate while he unleashed every insult he could think of (and boy, he could get creative). Percy, the sweetheart, wasn't so sweet after all. Piper had figured that out after two years of knowing him. He was very subtle about it.

Cruel, along with brave, seemed to also be a Dauntless trait.

"Well," Chiron said. "Go along to your dorms." He said while clapping his hands together and rolling his chair out of the way so that his students could pass through. "Oh, Percy…and Thalia, Nico, Bianca, Jason and Hazel, congratulations on your victory against Mercury. Well done, children."

"Thank you Chiron," Thalia said awkwardly, catching Chiron's slip. She wasn't stupid, she, along with everybody else, knew that Percy was the most favored student in Battle School and she accepted that - she didn't resent him or anything because well, Percy _is _pretty fucking awesome…just don't tell him she said that.

Chiron nodded and the Dauntless walked towards the right end of the corridor, where the shadows were the darkest and one by one, they began to seep into them and disappeared (nobody besides the Dauntless knew where their dorms were truly located and nobody dared to ask) while Annabeth, Piper and Zoë headed towards the elevator to take them to their Faction levels.

"'Night," Percy said before he slipped into the shadows and also disappeared just likem his fellow Dauntless, leaving Chiron with a smile directed at his instructor.

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

"Are you ready for this test?" Percy whispered in Nico's ear as they sat next to each other in the waiting room, waiting for one of their names to be called next. There were only a couple of other people seated around them, too worried to overhear the two.

"No," Nico confessed honestly. "I really don't want to be stuck inside my worst nightmares."

Percy nodded. "Yeah," he gulped and licked his suddenly dry lips. "I know that we're Dauntless, and we're supposed to be brave but -"

"Everyone's afraid of something, Percy; it's what makes us human."

"I know, but I just…I wish I wasn't so afraid. I don't think that I'll be able to beat my fears so easily. I've been doing this for four years and yet I still can't. How am I supposed to be a true -?"

"Nico di Angelo."

"That's my cue," Nico whispered roughly as he watched the girl who was in before him exit with tears streaming down her cheeks and her small frame shaking, her wild red hair flying around her and using it to try her best to cover her blotchy red face with it, to no avail.

"Good luck," his cousin replied and clapped his back in quick comfort. Nico robotically stood up from his seat, every set of eyes focused on him, and walked towards the woman dressed in a black and white business suit waiting for him at the door, smiling at him coldly.

She opened the door further for him to enter and he stepped in reluctantly. He closed his eyes and cursed himself. He's a Dauntless dammit.

"Take a seat Mr. di Angelo," the woman said and gestured to the reclining chair in the middle of the room. The walls of the room were a plain gray color with no windows and the floor was tiled with shinning marble. Next to the chair were a table with several silver tools on a shelf and a monitor with wires next to it. He did as he was told and stiffly took a seat.

"Relax."

He didn't.

The woman sighed and took hold of the white wires and began placing them on his arms and face and then stepped back once she was done and turned to the monitor, which was showing his body temperature, heart rate, etc.

"I will be able to see your fears here."

"Wait, you'll be able to see inside my head?!"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

"I…well, would _you _like it if someone looked inside your head and into your deepest, darkest fears?" he asked near panic and the monitor began to beep as his heart sped up.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "I am from Candor, Mr. di Angelo. We live our lives in black and white. We do not have secrets and would certainly be indifferent to have someone inside our heads since we have nothing to hide."

"Okay, bad example. Well, I am a fucking Dauntless and we _do _have secrets and we _do _have stuff to hide, such as, oh I don't know, fears that we don't want anyone to know about…hm, secret plans to overthrow the government, who we think about when we masturbate, etc."

"Plans to overthrow the government?" the Candor woman asked alarmed.

"Calm down Candor. It's called a joke," he said dryly.

The woman glared at him suspiciously before she picked up the needled from the shelf and brought it up to his neck. "Ready?" she didn't wait for his answer before she plunged the needle into his flesh and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again less than a second later, he was standing on the edge of a cliff alone.

Next to him he saw someone fall to the ground and whirled around and kneeled beside the person and turned their body face up. His heart stopped: Bianca.

She was bleeding all over and her breath was ragged. There were cuts all over her face and then the screams came, but they weren't from his sister. They came behind him and when he turned to face them, another body collapsed to the ground and he screamed when he realized who it was. He left his sister's side and ran towards Percy's beat body. "Percy!" he said, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. "Percy please wake up. You can't leave me like this, please."

"You know, there's a way for you to bring one of them back," he heard. He looked up, his vision blurry with tears, and met the fiery eyes of a woman with mightnight blue hair and a flowing white sundress towering over him and Percy.

"Tell me."

"A life for a life, as was the Old Religion," the woman said with a smile on her face. "You can only bring one of them back to life…and kill an innocent to restore balance." She flicked her wrist and beside her appeared Hazel tied up and struggling to be free.

"Choose which one you want to bring back and kill her…or you could let them both die and save your precious little sister," the woman told him with a smirk.

"I can't!"

"I thought you were a Dauntless, silly me." The woman mockingly said. Nico looked at his sister then at Bianca and Percy, helpless. "You have to choose quickly," she said.

"I…I…"

Hazel looked at him pleadingly with tears in her eyes.

"It's a matter of deciding who is more important to you in the world, Nico di Angelo. Would you take a life to save another? Who do you love more? Your darling sister Bianca who abandoned you at the first chance she got, for Battle School and two years later when she saw you again, she wanted nothing to do with her old life - with _you_?" the woman began to circle Bianca's dying body tauntingly. "Or…do you love your precious cousin more? The one who took you under his wing when you arrived so young at age six and took care of you like a true brother…but still prefers your other cousin rather than you?"

"How do you know all of this?"

"Because I _know_ you, Nico."

"…Percy doesn't prefer Jason over me."

"I never said which cousin."

A gun appeared on his right hand and he closed his eyes, sobbing quietly in agitation. He lifted up the gun and pointed it at his half-sister's head and just when he was about to pull the trigger, he quickly aimed it at the woman and shot her quickly. She fell to the ground with a smile frozen on her face and her eyes lost the fiery light within them.

The gun shot echoed and it made his ears ring. He opened his eyes once the noise had faded and found himself in a completely different landscape.

He heard heavy, familiar footsteps and he gulped when he realized what was to come.

"Gods help me."

_**The Wings of Icarus**_

"Percy Jackson."

Percy stood up from his seat and strode towards the door and watched as his cousin walked out of the room without sparing him a glance, with soulless dark eyes and his arms wrapped around himself in comfort.

Percy looked at his cousin in worry, but decided not to say anything then and there and instead; he stepped into the room and headed towards the chair set in the middle. He waited for the woman to start the process, staring at her expectantly. He took in her appearance and her clothing. _Candor, _he thought.

The woman grabbed the white wires from the table next to the chair and began to place them where they corresponded and the monitor reset itself with the new data.

"You've done this before, then."

"Yeah, when I was ten. Same age as Nico."

"Your youngest cousin."

"He is also a fellow Dauntless."

The woman nodded and pursed her lips. "You know how this goes then."

"I do. Let's just get it over with."

The woman nodded and injected him with the serum.

He crashed right into his nightmare and he braced himself.

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

He walked out of the room and patted himself on the back mentally for managing to do it steadily and a blank expression on his face.

He waited until he had walked far enough away from the waiting area and then he broke into a run towards the nearest shadows at the end of the corridor. He was just about to sink into them, longing for the comfort of the darkness wrapping themselves around him when he was stopped abruptly.

"Percy, are you alright?"

His muscles tensed and his jaw clenched angrily. She was there to mock him, he was sure. "Why do you care, Annabeth?" he snapped.

She gave him a hurt expression. "I…I was just asking because you, um, didn't seem okay and I just…"She looked away from him, her cheeks coloring in shame and it was like a slap to the face for him. Guilt punched him in the gut and he took a careful step towards her.

"Look, Annabeth," he sighed and ran a hand through his messy dark hair. "I'm fine, alright. You know how these mental tests are…just, I'm fine." He assured her and because he felt bad about snapping at her, "Thanks for asking, though." He smiled softly at her.

Her face colored again faintly, but this time not from shame, and she nodded. "Yeah, I…yeah. I have my test at 4 o'clock."

"Oh, uh, good luck, Anna."

Normally, she would have gutted anyone who dared call her by a shortened version of her name, but well, this was Percy. Percy who's an asshole and a dick most of the time and who likes to punch people and snap at her and hurl cruel insults at her, but it was also Percy who had his moments when he was sweet and caring and smiled at her softly and looked at her with his intense green eyes and said her name gently.

"Thank you, Percy."

They nodded at each other and smiled awkwardly. "I better go…" he said, gesturing to the shadows behind him.

"Wait," she said just before he backed into them. She panicked. She wanted to spend more time with him, keep talking, but she didn't know what to say to him.

"Yes?"

"I…um…uh, do you…uh," dammit. "DoyoulikeZoë?"

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, you should, uh, you should go." She made a shooing gesture at the shadows and Percy stared at her in confusion.

"Right…"

He looked at her weirdly before he sank back in the shadows, shooting her an awkward smile. She returned it as she fiddled with the ends of her shirt and mentally kicked herself.

_Goddammit, he probably knows now. Could you have been any more obvious, idiot? _

_**The Wings of Icarus **_

"How many fears does he have?"

"He has three fears, sir. They have been the same three since he first started the mental tests four years ago."

The Director nodded thoughtfully. "These fears are what keep him rooted and prevent him from going astray. They are what keep him human."

"He thinks himself not a true Dauntless _because _of these fears, sir."

"Do you think these will prevent him from doing his job? Following the path of his destiny?"

"They will if they get out of control, if they don't lessen. He doesn't precisely have to overcome them but learn to control them. But I am positive that he will be able to; he has a heart full of courage after all. Despite of what he says, he _is _a true Dauntless."

The Director sighed. "Show me Nico di Angelo's results."

The woman touched the screen in front of the two of them and pulled up a recent picture of the youngest di Angelo. It was an action shot taken during training. He had a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, in a defensive position. There was deep concentration and anger in his dark eyes and blood along with dirt tainted his pale skin which was glistening with sweat.

The Director took in the boy's angered expression with interest - he saw true hatred at it's fullest in that boy's face. "Who was his opponent?"

The woman touched the screen against and pulled up another picture. It was a bigger version of the first picture and it wasn't cropped to show only Nico. It also showed a blonde boy of thirteen with the same anger in his electric blue eyes as he held a golden shield in front of him and sported a bruise on his face. Same intensity, same anger, but the hatred was not shown on his face. He did not hate Nico di Angelo like Nico hated him.

"Jason Grace, sir, also from the Dauntless faction."

"Cousins, I take it?"

The woman's lips twitched upwards. "How'd you guess?"

The Director smiled. "The Dauntless are composed of the Olympia blood line."

"They are all half-bloods."

The Director raised an eyebrow. "The Dauntless are of pure godly blood. The others…they aren't true half-bloods. The other children and offspring of half-bloods who were of half-blood parents and so on while the Dauntless children are _actual _demigods. They have seen the gods and interacted with them. It has come to my understanding that Perseus and his father are close."

"Hence their family name, Olympia for Olympian Gods."

The Director nodded. "The other children don't know, though."

It was the woman's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It would only cause more hatred and envy directed at the Olympia children."

"I see."

The Director turned back to the screen and looked at the photo in front of him for a moment before he touched the screen and pulled up di Angelo's results.

"Seven fears, then."

The woman nodded. "Percy Jackson is a big part of his life, from what I have gathered."

"Nico is too attached to his cousin; he would follow Percy to the end of the universe blindly and without hesitation."

"Blind faith is never good."

"It is when it comes to following someone like Perseus Jackson. Nico di Angelo will be an excellent Lieutenant."

"He must earn his place there, though. Blind faith alone won't suffice. He must prove that he is worthy and that he would go to great lengths to be his beloved cousin's right hand."

"What do you suggest then, Circe?"

"Put someone else in his place and see what the boy does."

"…How very cruel of you."

Circle rolled her eyes and gestured at the screen filled with the picture of cousin vs. cousin hatred. "Put Jason Grace as Lieutenant. The two hate each other with a passion and it will fuel Nico's anger - he'll be motivated to prove his worth."

"You want me to make them hate each other more than they already do?"

Circe smiled. "Let's see what the boy does."

"This can only end in a bloodbath."

"But won't that be amusing?"

The Director chose to not answer her and instead busied himself with arranging a new game plan on the screen. He replaced Nico's name under Percy's with Jason Grace and moved Nico di Angelo to be commanded under Jason. "Bloodbath, then."

Circle placed a hand on the Director's shoulder and rubbed gently. "How did you ever become the Director of Battle School you cruel, cruel man."

"I wasn't cruel before I met you, Circe."

"Ah, my bad man behind the blue eyes. How you are so easily swayed when a pretty woman bats her eyes at you and allows you to grope her breasts."

"Only for you, my love." The Director responded, grabbing hold of her by her waist and pulling her closer, their lips only inches apart. "When must you return to Candor?"

"Tonight, my love."

"We have enough time then."

Started: 4/8/14  
Completed: 4/10/14 

**A/N: Holy crap I am tired. So I do have an idea of how this is going to go, so bear with me. I purposely have not named the Director just yet because of reasons. **Anyway, another song for you guys: _**All Is Hell That Ends Well **_- Inoue Konoha. 


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